Rethinking Project Management

We’ve had a Project Manager role forever. I started out doing it myself in the beginning, and soon after we created a full-time role. As our client list grew, we added a second PM. Neither person was aligned with a particular speciality (industry or client type), we just assigned based on capacity. It worked well for awhile. Each PM typically had about six active projects, and another 10 to 15 on the back burner.

Over the last year, though, we’ve seen a divide emerge. Our PMs were responsible for understanding our client’s goals and advocating internally for those, as well as managing our team’s capacity/skills and advocating for them. Often they were talking out of both sides of their mouth. And balancing near-constant client communications with the demands of project management tasks that required head-down focus.

It was Jekyll and Hyde. One person, two totally different personas.

Something needed to change.

Step 1: Understand Everything That Needs to Get Done

We took a look at the long, laundry list of tasks that our PMs were responsible for. Two categories immediately became clear: client-focused and project-focused. It looked something like this:

Client Responsibilities:

• real-time calls and emails
• pre-scheduled communication (kick-offs, updates)
• proactive communication: reachout with ideas, opportunities, suggestions
• understand client business
• advocate internally for client goals and requests
• develop and manage client relationship

Project Responsibilities

• assign tasks
• manage internal capacity and skill delegation
• making sure team understands their tasks
• review deliverables
• testing and QA
• reviewing project scope
• load project content
• configure settings

The client tasks tended to be communications-heavy and frequently fluctuated in volume, while the project management tasks were more structured and technical.

It was pretty clear that instead of two project managers, we needed one Production Manager and one Account Manager. It just so happened that one of our PMs loved the communications aspects of the job, while the other much prefers to have his head in the tech. It was a natural divide.

Step 2: Take Inventory of Client Relationships and Re-Assign as Needed

We took a look at all of our clients and projects and decided which role was needed for each, taking into consideration existing relationships that were already established. Some projects are highly technical or complex and need a strong production management lead, while others require more extensive communications and relationship management and benefit from a strong account management lead. Each project and client is unique, and we made a concerted effort to align the roles where they would deliver the most value. This continues as an ongoing consideration each time a new project kicks off.

Step 3: Make the Change. Educate our Clients.

We’ve been careful and conscious about this transition. No client wants to feel like their project is being interrupted with a staffing change. So we took our time, reaching out to clients to explain the reason for the change, how it would benefit them, and educating them about how we planned to move forward.

We’re more than half-way through the transition now, and it was the right choice. While most of the big, established agencies have a AM/PM split in their structure, as a small agency it was something we needed to grow into. We’re there now, and I think it’s going to be a great fit for both our staff and our clients.

But ask me again in six months. If you’re running an agency of your own, you know how fast this stuff changes!

Tell me: How do you divide client and project responsibilities? Have you adjusted those roles as your business grows?